About CFD Research: Since its inception in 1987, CFD Research has delivered innovative technology solutions within the Aerospace & Defense, Biomedical & Life Sciences, Intelligence & Sensing, and Energy & Materials industries. CFD Research has earned multiple national awards for successful application and commercialization of innovative component/system technology prototypes, multi-physics simulation software, multi-disciplinary analyses, and expert support services. Based in Huntsville, Alabama where laboratory facilities and headquarters are located, CFD Research also has office and laboratory facilities in Dayton, Ohio, prototyping test and evaluation facilities in Hollywood, Alabama, and office facilities in Fort Walton Beach, Florida. CFD Research is an ISO9001:AS9100D registered company and is appraised at CMMI Level II for Services. CFD Research is a 100% ESOP (employee-owned company) recognized in Inc. Magazine's Inc5000 as a top growing company for four of the last five years. Learn more at
About the Job
CFD Research is excited to invite applications for a full-time Maintainability and Testability Engineer! In this role, you'll play a key part in supporting the continued growth, production, and lifecycle management of a complex multidisciplinary aerospace and defense hardware system.
Your mission will be to develop and enhance the engineering framework that ensures our system can effectively detect and isolate failures, support troubleshooting, provide vital diagnostic information, facilitate efficient maintenance, and be ready for service after maintenance activities.
You’ll have the opportunity to collaborate closely with a diverse team, including reliability experts, systems engineers, design engineers, controls and software professionals, test engineers, manufacturing teams, product support staff, maintainers, technicians, and program leaders.
This position will split time between our Headquarters in Huntsville, AL and our Engineering Test Center in Hollywood, Alabama.
About the Role
As the Maintainability and Testability Engineer, you’ll evaluate the system from the perspective of the personnel who maintain and support it throughout its lifecycle. Your insights will translate known and predicted system failure behaviors into practical requirements and strategies for fault detection, fault isolation, built-in testing, diagnostics, accessibility, maintenance, repair, support equipment, and verification.
This position offers significant involvement in design maturation, where you’ll leverage information from FMEA and FMECA, testing, maintenance activities, and real-world failure experiences to identify opportunities for enhancing system maintainability and testability.
What You’ll Do
- Develop and maintain the system maintainability and testability engineering framework.
- Develop and maintain Maintenance Task Analyses.
- Perform or support Level of Repair Analysis.
- Develop fault detection and fault isolation analyses.
- Define expected fault-isolation capability and diagnostic resolution.
- Develop and maintain integrated diagnostics and testability analyses.
- Evaluate Built-In-Test capabilities, diagnostic coverage, limitations, and failure-detection performance.
- Collaborate with controls, software, electrical, mechanical, and other engineering teams to enhance BIT and diagnostic functionality.
- Assess health-monitoring and prognostic capabilities where applicable.
- Work alongside the Systems Reliability Engineer to ensure significant failure modes identified through FMEA and FMECA are appropriately detectable and isolatable.
- Evaluate accessibility, removal and replacement activities, maintenance sequences, maintenance times, tooling, personnel requirements, and support-equipment needs.
- Identify maintainability-related design deficiencies and collaborate with responsible design organizations to develop corrective actions.
- Support Reliability Centered Maintenance activities and the development of maintenance tasks and intervals.
- Assist in repair-versus-replace decisions and other repair-level analyses.
- Develop the engineering basis for maintenance and repair procedures and support the development of technical publications.
- Review maintenance manuals, troubleshooting procedures, and related technical content for consistency with the system design and diagnostic strategy.
- Identify and evaluate support-equipment requirements associated with system maintenance, troubleshooting, and diagnostics.
- Support Human Systems Integration activities affecting system operation and maintenance.
- Develop or support maintainability, BIT, diagnostics, fault-isolation, and human-engineering demonstrations.
- Define verification approaches and evidence required to demonstrate compliance with maintainability and testability requirements.
- Collaborate with the Systems Test Engineer to develop and execute formal maintainability, BIT, diagnostics, and fault-isolation verification activities.
- Evaluate actual maintenance, test, and failure data to refine maintainability assumptions and diagnostic strategies.
- Support product-support and lifecycle engineering activities requiring maintainability or testability expertise.
Basic Qualifications:
- Bachelor’s degree in systems engineering, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, aerospace engineering, industrial engineering, or another closely related engineering discipline.
- Three or more years of relevant engineering experience involving maintainability, testability, diagnostics, maintenance engineering, product support, hardware integration, testing, or a related technical area.
- Understanding of hardware failure modes and the relationship between failure behavior, fault detection, fault isolation, troubleshooting, and repair.
- Ability to understand technical drawings, system architecture, controls logic, maintenance information, test results, and engineering requirements.
- Strong technical writing and analytical skills.
- Ability to work directly with engineers, technicians, maintainers, test personnel, and product-support personnel.
- Ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. Government security clearance, as required.
Desired Qualifications:
- Experience developing Maintenance Task Analyses, Level of Repair Analysis, Reliability Centered Maintenance, or related maintenance engineering products.
- Experience with Built-In-Test, integrated diagnostics, fault detection, fault isolation, or testability analysis.
- Experience with FMEA or FMECA and translating failure modes into diagnostic or maintenance requirements.
- Experience developing or evaluating maintainability demonstrations.
- Experience working directly with maintainers or technicians on complex aerospace, defense, industrial, or electromechanical hardware.
- Experience with technical publications, troubleshooting procedures, support equipment, or product-support analysis.
- Experience supporting DoD acquisition, qualification, production, or lifecycle sustainment programs.
- Experience with Cameo Systems Modeler, SysML, or other MBSE tools is beneficial.
Benefits: CFD Research offers competitive salaries and excellent employee benefits, including an employer matching 401(k) and Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP). CFD Research offers our Full-Time, permanent employee-owners a highly competitive insurance package, including medical, vision, and dental insurance. Additionally, we offer company paid leave, compensation time, parental leave, long-term and short-term disability, accidental death and dismemberment, and life insurance. Part-Time and Temporary employee-owners may receive partial or reduced benefits and leave time based on their employment status level. Performance appraisals occur twice a year and annual pay increases are based upon corporate goals, personal development, performance, and outstanding achievements. In addition, group and individual bonuses are awarded for exceptional performance.
CFD Research is an EO employer - Veterans/Disabled and other protected categories
